More heritage sites declared

SOWETO has scored big in the latest round of provincial heritage site declarations. Regina Mundi Catholic Church, James “Sofasonke” Mpanza House, Orlando Community Hall, and Zephania “Zeph” Mothopeng House have all been given heritage protection by the Provincial Heritage Resources Agency of Gauteng (Phrag).

The infamous Albert Street Pass OfficeThe infamous Albert Street Pass OfficeIn addition, the Albert Street Pass Office in the CBD, the Weltevreden Farmhouse in Weltevreden Park, and St Aubyn’s in Westcliff have also been given protection.

Some sites have formal protection, others have provisional protection, meaning that discussions with owners are ongoing. Once the talks are complete, these sites will be given full, formal protection. In the meantime, they have protection for two years.

“These declarations have been long awaited, and we are pleased to see the recent progress from the Provincial Heritage Authority (PHRA) towards establishing a Heritage Roll,” says Eric Itzkin, the deputy director of immovable heritage in the department of arts, culture and heritage.

“Collectively, the declarations are important for recognising the rich and diverse heritage of Johannesburg, for transforming the heritage landscape, and working towards the vision of the Heritage Act.”

Regina Mundi Church
Regina Mundi Church in Moroka, Rockville, was completed in 1964 and replaced Moroka’s first Catholic parish church in Soweto. It has a formidable reputation, having provided refuge to activists for decades in the run up to democracy in 1994. Bullet marks still puncture the walls and altar, a reminder that apartheid police often followed protestors into the church and fired at them inside the building.

Regina Mundi still bears the scars from the darkest days of apartheidRegina Mundi still bears the scars from the darkest days of apartheidRegina Mundi, Latin for “queen of the world”, can seat 2 000 people and has space for a further 5 000 standing worshippers. Its attractive A-framed interior exudes a peacefulness with its colourful stained glass windows and rows of long wooden benches. It has a unique feature as well – a black Madonna.

The church has other marks of fame: Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings were held here from 1995 to 1998. And, in 1998, it made international headlines when Bill Clinton, then the president of the United States and the most powerful man in the world, and his wife, Hillary, visited and stayed for a two-hour service.

It has been given provisional protection by Phrag.

James Mpanza House
James “Sofasonke” Mpanza, considered one of Soweto’s founding fathers, formed the Sofasonke Party, the first civic movement in the country, to hear the grievances of people living in Soweto.

He was born in 1889 in Georgedale, KwaZulu-Natal. He was imprisoned in his 20s, and sentenced to death, but was pardoned in 1927 after serving nine years.

Gideon Mpanza, in front of the family home, holds a photograph of his great grandfatherGideon Mpanza, in front of the family home, holds a photograph of his great grandfatherAfter his release, Mpanza settled in Bertrams, in Joburg. But he was relocated to Orlando, which was a farm at the time. Relocations by the government of the time from inner city suburbs meant that Orlando soon became overcrowded.

In response, Mpanza led some 20 000 people to vacant land on the Klip River, creating a squatter camp called Masakeng.

He took on the administration of the site, creating four blocks, but in 1944 a violent confrontation with the authorities led to two deaths. A loan to the City was used to provide housing for the squatters, and the suburb of Jabavu was born, marking the start of broader Soweto.

Mpanza is recognised for his continued fight for decent housing and in 2009 he was posthumously awarded the Order of Luthuli in Gold for “his exceptional contribution to the struggle for socio-economic rights, and his fight for justice and the restoration of the dignity of blacks in urban settlements”.

His influence spread to soccer too: he was involved in the founding of Moroka Swallows, and the people of Orlando took the name of another famous Soweto soccer team, Orlando Pirates.

In May 2010, his family was given the title deeds to his house at 957 Phiyela Street, Orlando East. Mpanza lived at the house until his death in 1970, and it has been given formal protection.

Orlando Community Hall
This historic hall, completed in 1933 for the residents of the newly established suburb of Orlando, has been used for many purposes: ballroom dance sessions, weddings, school functions, funerals, church services, film evenings, feeding schemes, and as the home of a municipal brass band.

The historic Orlando Community Hall has been used for a range of eventsThe historic Orlando Community Hall has been used for a range of eventsThe original Orlando Community Hall contains a main hall and a side hall linked together to form an L-shaped complex. A large, modern, multipurpose venue alongside the main hall was completed in 2004.

In 1947, Queen Elizabeth, on a trip to South Africa with her father, King George V, and her mother and sister, celebrated her 21st birthday here; Nelson Mandela used to train here as an amateur boxer in the 1950s.

Over the years, the hall has also witnessed political gatherings and meetings of breakaway parties. In the late 1940s, the fledging ANC Youth League met here under the leadership of Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo. The ANC also held regular gatherings here throughout the 1940s and ’50s.

It was in the hall that the breakaway ANC Africanists were ejected and formed the Pan Africanist Congress in 1959 under Robert Sobukwe. PAC anniversaries continue to be held in the hall.

During the student uprisings of 1976, while other municipal buildings in Orlando were burnt down, the hall was left untouched. And its significance is evident in the name given to it by local youth: The Parliament, possibly referring to the pillars at the entrance to the two halls.

The hall is still used for weddings, school events and church services. It has been given provisional protection.

Zephania Mothopeng House
The house in Maseko Street is a typical three-roomed township structure, with an outside toilet. The yard has been paved, a tiled roof and a front wall added, and a cottage constructed in the backyard. It has been well maintained and is in good condition. It has been given provisional protection.

Known as the “Lion of Azania”, “Zeph” Mothopeng was a leader of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC). He was born in 1913 near Vrede in the Free State, but his family moved to Johannesburg, where he completed high school.

He obtained a teacher’s qualification from Adam’s College in KwaZulu-Natal, and began his teaching career at Orlando Secondary School in 1941. In the same year he married and moved into the house.

Mothopeng founded the Orpheus Choir, which used to rehearse in the house, with his wife Urbania as the soloist and him on the piano. Urbania also held meetings for various community projects here. Mothopeng used to conduct the choir in the local Holy Cross Anglican Church.

His political career began with the Transvaal African Teachers Association; he also joined the ANC Youth League. In 1959, the Africanists within the league broke away from the ANC and formed the PAC. He was elected a member of the PAC’s national executive and national working committees.

Mothopeng became the vice-principal of Orlando Secondary but lost his job because he opposed the introduction of Bantu education. He moved to Maseru in Lesotho but returned to Soweto in 1955, now as an articled clerk with a firm of attorneys.

In 1960, he was arrested and sentenced to two years under the Suppression of Communism Act, for his role in organising PAC campaigns. After his release he was rearrested in 1963 and convicted in 1964 for promoting the aims of the PAC.
He was released in 1967 but was immediately served with a banning order. He was banished to Witsieshoek in the Free State, but then given permission to live in his home in Soweto.

Throughout the 1970s, Mothopeng continued doing underground work for the PAC, and together with former Robben Island inmates, a recruitment programme was established with the PAC in Swaziland. He was arrested again in 1976 and charged with promoting the aims of the PAC. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

He was released in 1989, and in February 1990 he rejected calls to join other leaders in the multiracial negotiations with the National Party government. On 23 October of that year he died at the age of 77.

The house has particular significance because of its association with the formation of the PAC. Its founder, Robert Sobukwe, frequently visited the home. It forms part of several struggle sites in the nearby Vilakazi Street precinct, where the homes of Mandela, Sisulu, Desmond Tutu and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela are located.

Albert Street Pass Office
The Albert Street Pass Office, a four-storey, red-brick building on the southeastern edge of the CBD, has been given provisional protection. It is now the Usindiso Women’s Shelter.

The office become infamous as a place where blacks stood in long queues to obtain or renew their dompas or pass, the means by which the apartheid government controlled the movement of blacks across the country. Under the 1952 Pass Laws Act, black women and men were only allowed to live in cities if they were born there, had lived in a city continuously for 15 years, or had worked for the same employer for 10 years.

Thousands were probably endorsed out of the city from these offices, to the wasted homelands, as officials mindlessly administered a swathe of apartheid control measures.

Opened in 1954 as the Non-European Affairs Department, the Albert Street office was enlarged in the 1960s to accommodate the intensification of influx control as it became more established. But by the mid-1980s, the system had become unmanageable and, together with protests and anti-pass campaigns, the Nationalist government was forced to admit failure – pass carrying was abolished in 1986.

The offices closed, remaining empty for a number of years before they were occupied by the Transvaal Provincial Administration in the early 1990s. They were converted to a shelter in 1994. The building has been given provisional protection.

Weltevreden Farmhouse
The original Weltevreden farmhouse dates back to 1861The original Weltevreden farmhouse dates back to 1861The original farmhouse, on 500 acres of land, dates back to 1861. It was a three-roomed structure with 40cm thick walls of sun-dried mud bricks, a yellowwood ceiling and a thatch roof and attic.

The original farm was allocated to three men in 1861: two cousins, RG Badenhorst and HJJ Badenhorst, and Cornelis Johannes Smit. The three men were given the land as “burgerrecht” compensation, in recognition of fighting for the government in various tribal wars of the time. Smit was given a wagon, oxen and £900 in addition to land.

In 1872, he bought HJJ Badenhorst’s portion, paying for it with a team of oxen and £900, according to his great, great grandson, Louis Kruger, who was born in the house in 1934. Smit took over the three-roomed farmhouse and added more rooms, which are clearly distinguishable from the front rooms by their flat roof.

A kitchen and bedrooms were added at the back, and in the late 1930s further changes to the house were made – a Cape Dutch gable was added to the façade and waterborne sewage was brought to the house.

A family cemetery, several blocks from the house, still exists – today surrounded by townhouse complexes – but many of the stones are too worn to read.

From the 1970s, the great, great grandchildren sold their inheritance, and the present-day suburbs sprang up: Allen’s Nek, Randpark Ridge, Constantia Kloof, Weltevreden Park, Radiokop and sections of Panorama, Wilgeheuwel and Strubens Valley.

In 1996, the property was rezoned from residential to business use. The house has been restored and converted into office space, sandwiched between two two-storeyed office buildings. The original wagon and coach house has been converted into a set of offices.

Weltevreden Farm was in the same family for 131 years. It has been given provisional protection.

St Aubyn’s House
This house was built in 1930 by JM “Ginger” Fernandez in typical Portuguese style.

The Westcliff house has unusual views overlooking Melville, Auckland Park and MilparkThe Westcliff house has unusual views overlooking Melville, Auckland Park and MilparkOriginally from Madeira, an island off Portugal, he came from a tradition of small-scale market gardeners who constructed gardens on rocky, waterless ridges, using soil conservation and water management techniques that were applied to the steep, rocky home in Westcliff.

It’s a small house by Westcliff standards, with only three bedrooms, but it shines with wooden floors, restored pressed-steel ceilings, maple cupboards, and marble fireplaces. The large patio is reached up classical stairways and balustrades.

A double storey, it has unusual views overlooking Melville, Auckland Park and Milpark, with the imposing University of Johannesburg buildings peeping out from the ridges to the west. It was sold to its present owner in 2005, and she has undertaken to meticulously restore it to its original condition.

The garden, with its cascading terraces, ponds, nooks and crannies, yields figs, pears, plums and persimmon, with a large vegetable and herb garden bursting with fresh food. Fernandez grew enough vegetables to supply the market. He created tranquil reading corners, gentle ponds, and a profusion of viewpoints.

He also built hutches for rabbits, fowls and pigeons behind the house. South of the house Fernandez planted an extensive orchard of fruit trees, but this portion of the property was subdivided and sold off separately.

A large stone storeroom was built just east of the house, with several dark, damp rooms to store his vegetables and fruit. This storeroom has been opened up and converted into an 18m long entertainment area, overlooking a new pool. With its six-metre tall ceilings, stone walls and tall arches, it has the feel of an ancient Roman or Greek chamber.

A new office building has been constructed at the bottom of the property, and with its shallow roof pool, it blends in perfectly with the myriad trees and shrubs that surround it. The house previously had provisional protection for a number of years – it has now been given formal protection.

More declarations are in the pipeline. “While I see this as a start, there are many other deserving sites which are still to be recognised and proclaimed, so this forward momentum will need to be sustained,” concluded Itzkin.